Religious teacher and student issued Restriction Order under ISA for extremist views
A religious leader and one of his students have been placed on a Restriction Order (RO) under the Internal Security Act, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Wednesday (16 January).
Murad Mohd Said, a 46-year-old freelance religious teacher, was issued the RO on 5 December for propagating “beliefs promoting violence and views detrimental to the cohesion of Singapore’s multi-racial and multi-religious society”, according to the MHA.
His teachings had called for the “compulsory” killing of non-believers, Sufis, Shi’ites, and Muslims who have renounced Islam or disregarded texts from the Quran. He also taught Muslims were allowed to wage “armed jihad” against “infidels who prosecuted them”.
A person with an RO has to abide by several restrictions. For example, he is not allowed to change his residence or employment, or travel out of Singapore, without getting the approval of the Director of the Internal Security Department. He cannot issue public statements, address public meetings or contribute to any publication.
Murad’s accreditation under the Asatizah Recognition Scheme was also cancelled by MUIS in May 2018. Even after his accreditation was revoked, Murad continued to propagate his extremist views.
Separately, Razali Abas, a 56-year-old technician, was issued with an RO in October 2018 following his arrest under the ISA in September. He became disillusioned with his lifestyle and in 2012, he began attending Murad’s classes.
The classes made Razali susceptible to the more radical influences on social media. He became convinced that it was “legitimate to kill those he felt were oppressors of Islam, including non-Muslims and Shi’ites”.
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